Sex and Gender Bias
The “glass ceiling” is a popular phrase that women have been striving to break through for decades in Ghana. It refers to gender equality, primarily in the workforce, and great progress has been made over the years.
In our country, it is no longer uncommon for women to run businesses, even the biggest corporations, or hold job titles in the upper ranks of management. Many Ghanaian women also do jobs that are traditionally male-dominated.
Despite all the progress that has been made, sexism can still be found. It may be subtler than it once was, but it makes an appearance in all parts of society, from education and the workforce to the media and politics.
The Power of the Women’s Vote
The NPP National Women’s Wing aims to effectively and significantly empower more Ghanaian women than ever through awareness campaigns, ‘Get out the Vote’ initiatives and polling workshops.
Ghanaian women do not take the right to vote lightly. It can be surprising to learn that in recent elections, more Ghanaian women have voted than men. However, more needs to be done in order to incentivize more women on political and voting matters.
Voter turnout is a big deal during elections, and women do tend to have a better turnout than men. This is true of all ethnicities and all age groups in both presidential election years and midterm elections. The tide turned in the 2000s and it has not shown signs of slowing down.
Women in Powerful Positions
Ghana has not elected a woman to the presidency yet, but the government is filled with women who hold high positions of power.
The NPP National Women’s Wing aims to increase the number of women who are in executive office at the national, Regional and local levels in the years to come. The effort also extends across three branches: government, Parliament and the judiciary.
Our goals is to empower enough women to shatter the glass ceiling in all corners of social and economic life in our country.
Economic Empowerment of Women
Investing in women’s economic empowerment sets a direct path towards gender equality, poverty eradication and inclusive economic growth. Ghanaian women make enormous contributions to the national economy, whether in businesses, on farms, as entrepreneurs or employees, or by doing unpaid care work at home.
Particularly in Ghana, gender-responsive services, production resources, markets in agriculture, industry and trade would enhance economic empowerment of women and youth extensively. NPP NWO works with government agencies to adopt and implement Regional and nationwide plans, legislations, policies, strategies, budgets and justice mechanisms in order to strengthen women’s economic empowerment.
Through Regional and nationwide interventions, NPP NWO aims to empower up to 5 million women to increase income, build assets, wealth and business leadership. The program facilitates women’s access to productive resources and business services by addressing policy and regulatory barriers and promote women’s active participation in and benefit from the extractive industry, agriculture, trade and building women’s and youth’s agribusiness and entrepreneurship skills across the value chain.
Fostering Girl Literacy
The NPP National Women’s Organization is committed to getting all Ghanaian children—especially girls—in school and learning, and much progress has been made over the past 15 years, especially on attainment. No single organization can break down the complex barriers facing girls, especially in Ghana. As part of our collective effort, we are supporting the work of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) to produce the data needed to make a difference in the lives of girls across the country.
Together, we are driving a data revolution in education to ensure that countries collect and use more relevant data.
We know there is a multiplier effect to educating girls. More educated women tend to be healthier, earn more income, have fewer children, and provide better health care and education to their own children, all of which can lift households out of poverty. Yet we also know that child marriage and risks of early pregnancy continue to pose a major barrier to schooling for many girls. Every year of child marriage reduces the likelihood of secondary school completion in Ghana by four to five percentage points. This means than in a typical Ghanaian Region, a girl marrying at age 15 or 16 has virtually no chance to complete secondary education. In some cases, fear of rape and harassment also prevent girls from going to school.
Empowering Widows, Single Moms and Other Economically Weakened Layers of the Women Population
The NPP National Women’s Wing has made it a priority to bring economic and social relief to specific layers of the population: widows, single mothers and other socio-economically feeble classes of women.
Relief efforts include workshops, periodic awareness campaigns, monetary and in-kind donations, and healthcare initiatives such as vaccination and breast cancer screening.
Healthcare and economic empowerment will remain atop the agenda of NPP NWO for the years to come, and the National Executive Committee will work closely with Regional and local leaders to implement the NPP’s Women Empowerment Program.